Eva Dameron is the new head honcho at UNM’s daily newspaper, the Daily Lobo. The staff agreed to Dameron’s appointment at a forum a few days ago, and she was approved by vote at a publication meeting today. Her first day on the job will be Sunday.

The paper’s previous editor, Rachel Hill, resigned about a week ago for health reasons, according to Dameron. Dameron adds that Lobo associate director of business operations Jim Fisher has said it’s only the second time in the history of the paper that an editor has left through resignation.

Dameron started at the Lobo six years ago. “I moved here from Florida, and I was sort of lonely,” she remembers. She called up an old professor back east for advice, which turned out to be: Get a job at your school paper. “So I went into the Daily Lobo and I slammed my fist onto the desk, and I was like, ‘I want to work for your paper!’ And they gave me a story,” she laughs, with some disbelief. “So I tried the assertive approach.”

It’s worked out well for her.

In addition to wearing quite a few hats at the Lobo over the years—writer, designer, copy chief, opinions editor—Dameron briefly worked as an arts intern here at the Alibi under Steven Robert Allen and as a writer/photographer at a paper in Chicago. Dameron is active in the local music community, appearing as multi-instrumentalist Eva Ave. (frequently paired up with Carlosaur). She’s been producing a series of “beautiful” newspaper/zines called “The Nightly Noodle Monthly,” available for a quarter apiece at The Zone, Winning Coffee, Silver Skate Shop and her music performances. She’s also an artist who frequently turns up on the walls of underground gallery shows. (Disclosure: I own one of her pieces. If you come by the office, I’ll gladly show it to you.)

Though she just signed up for a seven-day-a-week gig, Dameron doesn’t seem concerned that her side projects will fade away. And she’s thinking about what direction she can take the Lobo.

“The thing I do hear a lot is that the Daily Lobo is, basically, boring. And I’ve always agreed that it could be more interesting and sort of thought that that was just the way it is. I like it when a paper takes a stand on a certain issue—but I don’t know if that would work at the Lobo.

“I just want juicier writing. I want them to relay something factual and relevant while still being able to turn a phrase. That would be sweet,” Dameron says. It’s a task she admits is difficult at a daily newspaper, where heavy workloads can grind a sharp staff into nubble. “But,” she adds, “they’re good kids and they work really hard.”